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Monday, January 18, 2010

Cuba / Haiti roundup

CNN video: Cuban Medical Personnel Providing "quality medical care". One of the few places in Port-au-Prince where Haitians can go for care and have a "reasonable expectation of surviving".

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Cuba now has 220 doctors and health staff working in the disaster relief in Port au Prince, Haiti along with ten tons of medicines flown in to meet the most pressing needs. Numerous young Haitian doctors who studied medicine on scholarships in Santiago de Cuba have joined in the effort, including 37 who arrived from Cuba on Saturday. Cuba News Agency reports on Sunday that planes carrying specialists in emergencies also bring shipments of medical supplies. On Saturday the equipment for three operating rooms arrived from Cuba to support the efforts of the medical brigade already working at several points in the Haitian capital. Cuba has an ongoing program of treatment throughout Haiti under an agreement with the host government. Besides the doctors concentrated in Port au Prince for the earthquake relief effort, another 227 provide services throughout the impoverished Caribbean country. (HavanaTimes.org)

Dr. Carlos Alberto Garcia, coordinator of the Cuban medical brigade in Haiti, said that the Cuban doctors, nurses and other health personnel work non-stop, day and night, after the critical situation left by the earthquake. He added that operating rooms are open 18 hours per day and that health care is also provided in the nearby departments of Aquin, Okay and others.

The Cuban experts are working in the University Hospital in Delmas 33 and also at the Rennaissance and Ofatma hospitals. The situation in the Haitian capital is critical and hundreds of unburied dead bodies remain on the sidewalks and streets, which – according to Dr. Garcia – could complicate the epidemiological situation.